Change of Callsign

Many of you may recall that this past autumn my friend Ben Wright
K9DID became a Silent Key. You may have read about Ben in QST or in
the AMSAT Journal, or may have read his article in CQ magazine called
"It's All My Mother's Fault.". He was a good friend and mentor to me
and many other hams.
Ben was a long time AMSAT member, VEC and probably the nicest person
anyone could every hope to meet on the air. He was a great family
man, loyal friend and fond of all of his ham acquaintances around the
world. We had some great times on AO-40, and an even better time
when we did the eyeball QSO in the booth at Dayton this past year.
In Dayton Ben and I hatched a scheme as a practical joke where I
would change my callsign suffix to "DID". Ben had influenced many
DIDs in amateur radio including AMSAT members K8DID Ron and K7DID
Deanna (not to forget hams KA8DID Bonnie and K5DID Art) and he
thought it would be "neat" to have me join them. Unfortunately when
Katrina hit the FCC closed down the vanity system and Ben passed
before I could "DID" it.
When the FCC re-opened the vanity call system in January I submitted
my application. As of today the application was granted, and W0EEC
is retired on the air.
I suspect it will take a bit longer to switch over email and the
like, re-subscribe to mailing lists, etc. I'm sure I'll fumble my
callsign for a few days, but N1DID feels right for so many reasons.
I'll still be W0EEC administratively at AMSAT and keep the mail alias
as long as feasible, so I hope the change won't impact any member services.
In lieu of sending me an email about the new email address please
consider sending a contribution to AMSAT in Ben's name to one of the
HEO projects (P3E, Eagle or just HEO in general). He was very fond
of AO-40 and I'm sure many of you worked him on that bird. I have a
strong feeling Ben would like to be remembered in either that way, or
if you simply think of Ben the next time you Elmer someone.
73,
Emily - N1DID
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N1DID formerly W0EEC - CM87tm
Donate to AMSAT at http://www.amsat-na.com/donation.php
Support Project OSCAR - http://www.projectoscar.net
Personal Website - http://www.PlanetEmily.com
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